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September 25, 2017Comments Off on What is Gemba & How it Can Benefit Your Facility

The word gemba is a Japanese term that is used as part of many industries manufacturing strategies. The term means ‘The Real Place.’ The concept behind a gemba strategy is that supervisors, manager, and others who may be in charge of different areas need to be spending time in ‘the real place’ where the work gets done. In a manufacturing facility, for ...

As a management philosophy, lean manufacturing is all about continuous elimination and reduction of waste in the production and business processes. Small, incremental improvements constantly take place in an organization so that it helps lower costs, increase productivity and maintain top quality products. All these things could be achieved along with profits, and at the same time, put waste to ...

September 13, 2016Comments Off on How to Select a Good Six Sigma Project

In any organization, there will always be problems and issues. It’s a part of the overall process of doing work, and so are the responses put in place to address them. This is why many popular improvement methods and systems abound because they are available for any organization that might need them. One of the favored process improvement methods is ...

The need for continuing improvement in the workplace grew over the years with new methods and systems introduced by organizational experts. One hugely appreciated initiative is the “visual workplace”, which is used as both guide and key performance measurement in many companies, businesses and industries. The idea behind a visual workplace is that it helps boost performance and achieve optimum ...

The Kanban board has been used extensively in many Japanese businesses for many decades. Tracing back its history, it was practiced by Toyota in the late 1940s to improve their manufacturing and engineering activities. Actual cards were used by the employees to communicate with the group or workers who come next in line. A Kanban card tells the employees involved ...

August 29, 2016Comments Off on The Importance of a Positive Workplace Culture

A workplace culture is the core of any organization, and it can spell success or failure. The character of any business and the personality of any company is its culture. It’s also what makes it unique. Suffice it to say that the total values, behaviors and interactions, the traditions and beliefs of an organization make up its culture. When an ...

Kaizen, commonly referred to as “continuous improvement,” proves very helpful in many workplaces. Businesses and organizations create cultures where employees constantly look for small changes they can make to improve the way the facility operates. Over time, these small improvements can lead to significant improvements in efficiency overall. We always enjoy hearing about unique ways kaizen ideas have been used ...

What if kaizen and lean thinking were implemented at a charity like a food bank? You might end up with an organization that looks like the Food Bank for New York City, the country’s largest food bank, which has distributed more than 63 million meals worth of food in the past year. Under its current leadership, the food bank’s workers have ...

November 19, 2014Comments Off on Does 3-D Printing Have a Role in Lean Manufacturing?

A lean workplace seeks ways to make itself more productive and more efficient, and a recent article at Reliable Plant and Lean Manufacturing Journal asserts that 3-D printing naturally fits in well with lean thinking. 3-D printers, the article explains, can make prototyping and customizing easier, which creates a less wasteful manufacturing environment. Additional benefits of 3-D printers are they can ...

November 6, 2014Comments Off on Continuous Improvement in Sports, Teaching and Beyond

When we talk about continuous improvement—sometimes referred to by the Japanese term kaizen—we often discuss it in the context of the workplace. We think about ways that processes such as assembling parts, organizing the workspace or communicating with coworkers can be improved. An article in this month’s issue of the New Yorker titled “Getting Better at Getting Better” examines the way ...